Censorship in Nebraska has made national news, and SPLC is here to help

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New York Times logo "Nebraska School Shuts Down Student Newspaper After L.G.B.T.Q. Publication"

Yesterday, The New York Times reported on Nebraska high school officials’ decision to shut down the Viking Saga ([link removed]) student newspaper for its coverage of LGBTQIA+ issues.
Read the Times' Story ([link removed])

The Times’ story featured an interview with Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel at the Student Press Law Center, about the situation. SPLC has been working with student journalists at the Saga since April, when they called our legal hotline ([link removed]) because school officials stopped them from publishing students’ preferred names and pronouns. We continued working with them after they learned Northwest Public Schools officials were shutting down the Saga after they ran two stories in May ([link removed]) covering LGBTQIA+ issues.

In addition to providing advice through the hotline, SPLC connected the student journalists with the Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and is working to follow up with the school district.

“School administrators censoring student journalists’ LGBTQIA+ related content is a growing trend, not only in Nebraska, but nationwide,” said Hadar Harris, executive director of SPLC. “The situation at Northwest is particularly egregious because the administration admits to shutting down the paper due to content-related concerns. That is illegal. SPLC will continue to support student journalists at Northwest and continue working with student journalists around the country fighting against these blatant acts of censorship.”
Read the Times' Story ([link removed])
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